The evening before we left the Land of Waves, I found Tazuna standing alone by the edge of the newly completed bridge.
He heard my footsteps and stiffened, feeling a change in the air. As he turned to look at me, I could see the same skittish, wide-eyed look Sakura had been sporting all week. He was trying to hide it, but his hands were trembling slightly.
Don't get me wrong, he and the rest of the village were extremely grateful that I had freed their nation, but they kept their distance. Over the past week, I had summoned dozens of Shadow Clones to do the heavy lifting and speed up the bridge's construction. But even while I was actively helping them, Tazuna and the other workers practically walked on eggshells around me. They were polite, but undeniably nervous.
When they looked at me, they weren't seeing the kid who helped rebuild their bridge; they were seeing the monster who painted it red.
And I can't exactly blame them for that, I mused.
I sighed internally and flared my [Presence], projecting that same warm, non-threatening aura I used on Sakura.
Tazuna blinked, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders as the heavy atmosphere around me seemingly vanished. He let out a long breath, finally able to look me in the eyes without flinching.
"Naruto," he greeted, his voice rough. "You're heading out tomorrow morning."
"Yep, ninja business is always active," I said, walking up beside him. "But before we go, I have something for you."
I reached into my pocket and tossed him a small storage scroll. Tazuna caught it clumsily, looking down at it in confusion.
"What's this?"
"Thirty million Ryo," I said casually, looking out over the ocean.
Tazuna nearly dropped the scroll. His jaw hit the floor, his eyes bulging out of his head. "T-Thirty million?! Kid, are you insane? Where did you get this?!"
"Gato's personal stash," I lied smoothly. "Consider it a refund for all the suffering he caused this place. Use it to rebuild your land. Fix the shops, buy boats, get the economy running again."
"I... I can't take this," Tazuna stammered, his eyes filling with tears. "It's too much. You already saved our lives, you gave us our hope back..."
"Of course you can," I said, turning away and giving him a two-finger salute. "Don't sweat the small stuff. Just make sure this country stands tall again."
I walked back towards the house, leaving him as he wept quietly, clutching the scroll to his chest.
The next morning was a massive spectacle. It felt like the entire Land of Waves had turned out to see us off. Tsunami pressed a massive bundle of travel rations into my hands with a tearful smile, and even Inari stood at the front of the crowd. The kid tried to look brave, but as he looked up at me, there was still a lingering, complex fear in his eyes. He knew exactly what it cost to buy his country's freedom.
"We're naming it the Great Naruto Bridge," Tazuna announced loudly, wiping his eyes with his sleeve as the crowd cheered. "So nobody ever forgets what happened here."
I just offered a small wave as we turned our backs and hit the road.
The ocean breeze of Wave gradually gave way to the dense, humid forests of the Land of Fire. The journey back to Konoha was painfully quiet.
Sasuke brooded the entire way. His eyes were glued to the ground, his jaw clenched tight, likely replaying his defeat against Haku—and the brutal reality of my subsequent slaughter of an entire army—over and over again. Sakura was still a nervous wreck, keeping a solid three paces away from me and tensing anytime I stepped off the path. Kakashi was deep in thought, occasionally glancing at me with his visible eye, trying to solve a puzzle he didn't have the pieces for.
They had asked questions, of course.
"How did you move that fast?"
"Where did those daggers come from?"
"What really happened to the mercenaries?"
I dodged them all with a grin and a shrug. "I trained hard," "Trade secret," or "Shadow Clones are amazing."
It drove them crazy. Sasuke was stewing in a mix of envy and inadequacy, Sakura was traumatized, and Kakashi was clearly unsettled.
When we finally passed through the Konoha gates, Kotetsu and Izumo looked up from their desks with bright smiles that quickly faltered.
Our team dynamic looked undeniably twisted. Sasuke looked murderous, Sakura looked physically ill, and Kakashi looked like he hadn't slept in a week.
But when the two gate guards looked over at me, I saw them physically stiffen.
My new passive aura felt heavy and cold.
I gotta train to rein that in, I noted internally, so it's undetectable or something. I'm sticking out like a sore thumb.
As we walked through the bustling streets of the village, I noticed the villagers reacting in a similar manner. The usual glares of hatred or disgust withered before they could even form on their faces. It was a purely biological response, like prey seeing a predator entering their territory. People were unconsciously stepping out of my way. Shopkeepers stopped yelling out their booths and stepped back as I passed. They were nervous, guarded, and wildly curious as to why the village pariah felt even more suffocating to be around.
We didn't stop to chat with anyone. Kakashi led us straight to the Hokage Tower.
In the office, Hiruzen sat behind his massive desk, his signature pipe in hand.
Kakashi gave the mission report. He clinically detailed the Demon Brothers, Zabuza, Haku, and finally, the army of mercenaries. When he got to the end, he paused, his posture going rigid as he glanced at me.
"...The mercenary army was dismantled," Kakashi said, choosing his words with surgical precision. "Naruto utilized... highly efficient, unilateral methods to enact a complete lethal pacification of the hostile force."
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, a puff of smoke leaving his lips. The temperature in the room seemed to drop. "Lethal pacification? Kakashi, the estimates said there were over two hundred men."
"He eliminated the threats, Lord Hokage," Kakashi clarified, his tone tightly controlled, clearly signaling he did not want to elaborate on the gore.
Hiruzen took a long drag of his pipe. His ancient, highly observant eyes swept over Sasuke's furious, glaring face, Sakura's violently trembling hands, and finally, the calm, unbothered grin on my face that practically screamed, "Yeah, I did that shit."
The Professor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, instantly reading the fractured dynamic of the team.
"I see. Team 7 is dismissed for a one-week rest period. Naruto, stay behind."
Sasuke scoffed quietly and turned on his heel. Sakura practically sprinted out the door, desperate to escape. Kakashi gave me one last, piercing look before vanishing via Body Flicker.
As soon as the room was empty, Hiruzen bit his thumb, swiped it across the underside of his desk, and activated the privacy seals on the walls.
A faint hum filled the room.
"Speak," Hiruzen commanded, his grandfatherly demeanor instantly vanishing, replaced by the cold, calculating presence of the Shinobi Commander. "Kakashi used Anbu terminology to spare your teammates, but I can read between the lines. Two hundred men don't just 'disperse'. And your chakra signature has changed completely."
"Yea, you're right. They didn't run. I slaughtered them," I stated plainly.
Hiruzen stared at me, his eyes hardening, but he said nothing.
"It needed to be done. If it wasn't, they would have leveled the place and killed everyone," I said, matching his intense gaze. "And... I awakened something new."
"Something new?" Hiruzen repeated, a flicker of genuine concern breaking through his stoic mask.
"From that 'Bloodline Limit' of mine," I said, extending my hand toward the center of the office.
"COME FORTH!"
VWOOM.
The ambient light in the office seemed to dim as thick, inky black chakra pooled on the wooden floor, darker than any shadow should naturally be. From the darkness, the Lizardman Commander rose. It stood seven feet tall, clad in shifting black armor, holding a spear made of raging blue fire.
It knelt before me, its fiery eyes glowing in the dim office.
Hiruzen stood up slowly, his chair groaning under the sudden shift in weight. He was horrified. He carefully walked around the desk, his eyes wide as he analyzed the soldier.
"This isn't a summon I've ever seen," Hiruzen whispered, his voice laced with a heavy, ancient dread. He poked the shadow's armor with the stem of his pipe; it passed through the ambient smoke but met solid resistance beneath. "And the chakra... it feels cold. Like the grave. Naruto... this borders on the Second Hokage's forbidden reanimation arts."
"Yea, this is one of the monsters I've slain from the Gates I told you about," I reminded him.
Hiruzen nodded slowly, still trying to process the impossibility standing in his office.
"I can store them in my shadow," I explained, gesturing with my hand. The Lizardman instantly melted back into my shadow, vanishing without a trace. "They don't need food. They don't feel pain. They regenerate indefinitely as long as I have chakra. And most importantly... they follow my orders with absolute loyalty."
"They?" Hiruzen repeated, his head snapping to look at me. "How many more of these constructs do you have?"
"Right now, 25," I said, causing his eyes to widen even more.
"But I could probably get way more. I don't know the limit yet," I lied smoothly.
My shit is infinite! But he don't gotta know that.
Hiruzen took in the information as he walked back to his desk. He sat down heavily and rubbed his temples deeply as his brilliant tactical mind processed the sheer magnitude of the nightmare I had just handed him.
"Two hundred men dead by the hands of a single twelve-year-old Genin, and an undying army that requires no logistics..." Hiruzen murmured, his face darkening significantly. "Naruto, do you understand the implications of what you've done? Of what you're showing me?"
I stayed silent, letting him speak.
"If word of that massacre reaches Iwa or Kumo, they will put a bounty on your head so high that every mercenary in the land will hunt you down. They might assume that Konoha has bred a new super-soldier," Hiruzen warned, his voice deadly serious.
Hmmmm, I… did not think of that, I admitted mentally. It might have been the adrenaline clouding my judgement at the time, but I probably could have just hit the quota of 10 kills, maybe even got an extra 3 to 5, and ran off the rest.
"And if certain individuals within this village learn of this shadow army, they will not see just a mere shinobi. They will see a weapon to be controlled."
He's undeniably referring to people like that one-eyed bastard, Danzo, I mused. It looks like I've kinda fucked up, huh?
I closed my eyes momentarily, allowing all the new information to sink in.
Oh well, I shrugged internally. No use in crying over spilt milk. I did it, I'm The Shadow Monarch now and I don't give a fuck if they come after me, they'll just die braver than most.
"That's exactly why I'm telling you. I haven't even shown any of this to Kakashi-sensei," I said firmly, opening my eyes and meeting his gaze without blinking. "You're the God of Shinobi, after all. Who else could figure out a way to cover this up but you?"
I let my words sink in for a moment.
"Besides, I did tell you that I was planning on getting as strong as possible anyways," I said as the charisma part of my [Presence] instinctively activated, bleeding into the room. "So those other villages might send assassins, so what? They probably would have done it later anyways. There's no point in worrying about what's been done. Let's focus on the here and now, and look towards the future."
Hiruzen felt the shift in the room immediately. The suffocating tension that had been building suddenly evaporated, replaced by a strange, magnetic warmth. It wasn't the heavy, crushing pressure of a predator anymore; it was the absolute, undeniable command of a true leader.
He looked at me for a long, silent moment. He was searching my face for any hint of childish naivety, or perhaps the unhinged malice of the Nine-Tails. Instead, he found only absolute, unbreakable confidence. I wasn't being arrogant; I was stating a fact, and my aura made it almost impossible not to believe me.
The deep lines of worry on Hiruzen's face smoothed out. The tension in his shoulders finally melted away, replaced by a profound sense of relief. He let out a long puff of smoke, a genuine, albeit tired, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as the charismatic aura settled the room.
"You speak of international assassination attempts with terrifying ease, Naruto," Hiruzen noted, shaking his head with a light chuckle. "But I suppose someone with an army at their back would."
He stood up, his posture noticeably lighter as he grabbed his Hokage hat from the desk. "Very well. I will have this officially classified as a rare Shadow Manipulation Bloodline Limit, derived from dormant Uzumaki seal work in your genetics. I will personally protect this secret from the Council."
He gestured to the door. "Now come with me. This is a great opportunity to see Dr. Honaka. If your chakra has changed this drastically, we need to document it medically to establish a proper alibi before others start to take notice."
[SYSTEM ALERT!]
[RELATIONSHIP SHIFT: Hiruzen Sarutobi (Guilt-Ridden Overseer → High Ranking Protector)]
We walked to the highly secure, private wing of the Konoha hospital where Dr. Honaka was waiting for us.
She ran a full-body diagnostic chakra scan. As the green, medical chakra washed over my coils, her eyes went wide.
"Lord Hokage," she whispered, looking at the medical chart with pure disbelief. "His pathways... they aren't just expanding. They're evolving entirely. The density of his spiritual chakra is completely off the charts. It's masking his physical chakra almost entirely."
"Is it the seal?" Hiruzen asked, playing his part perfectly.
"No," Honaka shook her head in awe. "It's entirely his own network. It's cold, incredibly dense, and terrifyingly potent."
"Document it as a severe, puberty-induced chakra expansion coupled with a dormant bloodline awakening," Hiruzen ordered smoothly. "Any anomalies are to be reported directly to me alone. This file is to be classified as S-Rank."
Honaka nodded, immediately understanding the gravity of the order. "Understood. Naruto, you're physically in perfect health. But whatever this new power is... try to be careful."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Doc," I responded, pulling my jacket back on. "I'm always careful."
I stepped out of the hospital and took a deep breath of the afternoon air, feeling like a million bucks. Securing Hiruzen in my corner without indirectly creating another one of those binding contracts—and establishing an ironclad medical alibi—was a massive win.
Now, I can finally relax a bit before getting back into the thick of things.
As if on cue, my stomach gave a violent rumble that practically rattled my ribs, reminding me I hadn't eaten anything but dry travel rations all morning.
I made a beeline through the winding streets, heading straight for the best spot in the village.
When I slid the flaps open at Ichiraku Ramen, the smell of rich pork broth hit me like a warm hug. Teuchi looked up from his boiling pots and wiped his hands on his apron, a wide, welcoming smile breaking across his face.
The goat himself.
"Naruto! Look who decided to finally show up!" Teuchi laughed, before pausing.
He leaned over the counter, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked me up and down. Teuchi wasn't a ninja, but he had served them long enough to read people.
"Wait a minute... you look different," he noted, rubbing his chin. "Did you get taller? Or is it your eyes? You've been gone a while, but something about you just feels... I don't know, heavier? Matured?"
"Just had a really rough first mission outside the village, old man," I replied, taking my usual seat and letting the tension of the day bleed out. "Something like that changes you, so I need the largest pork miso ramen you can physically make to help me recover."
"Coming right up! It's on the house to celebrate your safe return!"
On the house?! Shiiiiiit, say less.
Three massive bowls later, I finally felt replenished again.
I completely understand why Naruto ate nothing but these noodles. That man puts crack in them or something, they're too damn addictive.
As I walked out of the stand, happily rubbing my intensely satisfied stomach, I turned a corner and literally slammed into someone.
BONK.
"Damn! You don't got eyes you thick-skulled bas—" I couldn't finish my sentence after seeing who it was.
"Ouch! Hey, watch where you're—Naruto?"
Tenten stepped back, rubbing her forehead. She was wearing her usual pink Chinese-style blouse and dark pants, her twin buns slightly ruffled from the impact.
"Aye, Tenten," I grinned, sweating slightly as I realized what I had almost forgotten. "Perfect timing. I was just about to come looking for you. I promised you weapons, didn't I?"
"So you actually remembered, huh?" She crossed her arms, looking highly skeptical. "I figured you'd completely forget once you left the gates."
"Me break a promise? Never!"
I checked my surroundings, making sure the alley was relatively empty. I held my hand out, pretending to channel chakra into a non-existent storage seal on my wrist, and accessed my Inventory.
With a flash of blue light, I pulled out the [Venomous Spear] and the massive, serrated [Executioner's Cleaver].
Tenten completely froze.
Her jaw dropped. Her eyes darted from the enormous, brutal cleaver in my left hand to the glowing green spear in my right. She slowly reached out, her fingers trembling slightly as they grazed the metal of the spear.
"Is that..." She touched the green metal, her voice hushed with reverence. "This isn't standard steel. It's organic? And the balance..."
She snatched it from me so fast I barely registered the movement. She spun it in a complex martial arts form, the spear moving so fast it created a small wind tunnel in the alleyway. Her face was flushed with pure, unadulterated excitement.
"Check out the edge on the cleaver, too," I smirked. "It's a B-Rank artifact that repairs its own chipped blade by absorbing the iron from the blood of whatever you cut with it."
Tenten gasped, looking at the massive cleaver like it was made of gold. Then, her appraising gaze snapped back to the spear. Instinctively checking its conductivity like a true weapons master, she channeled a tiny bit of chakra into the shaft.
The tip immediately made a harsh hissing sound, instantly producing a dense, five-meter cloud of glowing green mist.
A stray rat that had been scurrying along the alley wall took a single breath of the fumes, stiffened like a wooden board, and dropped instantly to the cobblestones, completely paralyzed.
"It stuns too?!" she squealed, her eyes practically turning into stars. She looked at the weapons, then back at me, her brain seemingly short-circuiting from the sheer value of the loot.
Without a second thought, she vaulted forward and tackled me in a hug, nearly crushing my ribs with her surprisingly strong grip.
"You're the absolute best! Seriously, if you ever need standard weapons, just ask. You can borrow them any time! Forever!"
[SYSTEM ALERT!]
[RELATIONSHIP SHIFT: Tenten (Skeptical Acquaintance → Close Friend)]
Close friend? I thought, patting her back as she happily admired her new toys. More like a dealer-junkie relationship to me.
I closed my eyes momentarily, letting out a slow breath.
Knowing her, she's definitely gonna show these weapons off to her team. And when that happens, all sorts of eyes and questions are going to be directed straight at me.
A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth as I opened my eyes.
But, what do I care? I'm already waist-deep in village politics, and the Hokage himself is running my cover story. Besides... I'm the Shadow Monarch. Let them come, I'll await the challenge.